Strong growth in Cyprus property sales

March 6, 2018

3 min read

According to statistics, there has been a continuous improvement in Cyprus property sales in February as more properties are offered for sale in all districts excluding Larnaca.
According to the statistics from the Department of Lands and Surveys, there was a surge in the number of property sales contracts dropped at Land Registry offices in every part of Cyprus in February 2018 as the figure increased at a 46% rate, a higher value when compared to the obtained data of February 2017. A 64% increase was recorded in January, while 36% increase was also obtained in December. It recorded a 39% surge in November and another 18% increase in October.

The number of contracts that were dropped at the Land Registry offices in every part of Cyprus in February was placed at six hundred and sixty-six. This is a higher figure compared to the number of contracts recorded in February 2017 which is 456. It is the highest number of contracts recorded in February since 2010 as 704 contracts were deposited at the Land registry back then.
Despite the fact that sales in Larnaca fell short by 1%, it improved significantly in other districts. When we place this analysis regarding percentage, Famagusta recorded the highest sales as it rose by 174%; the second on the list is Paphos with a sales record of 87%. Moreover, Limassol and Nicosia recorded a 45% and 32% sales improvement individually.

The first two months of 2018 witnessed an increase in the number of contracts for property sales dropped at Land Registry offices as the figures were put at 1,361 at a 55% rate, an increase from the statistics of the previous year.
Famagusta recorded the highest rate of 150% closely followed by Paphos with a 79% growth. Nicosia came third with a 67% increase while Limassol came fourth on the list with a 56% and 4% increase was recorded in Larnaca.

Out of the 666 contracts, about 46% were dropped by local buyers of Cypriot descent while non-Cypriot purchasers did the remaining 54%. This is a clear indication of the increase in the rate of overseas sales and complicated to understand. The sales statistics are offered to foreign buyers have been altered as a result of the improvements to the coding method due to the notification on the website of the Department of Lands and Surveys. However, the facts of these alterations have not been made known to the public.

The Department also proposed that the 2018 foreign buyers’ data should not be compared with the previous years. There is a possibility that details will be released before the figures for March are published. One of the significant modifications to the figures is that the Department records the foreign sales to non-EU citizens and EU citizens in a separate list as analyzed in the table below.